Darksbane, The Beginning

Growing up in the sprawling Eastern city of Murghom was easy as pie, especially for the young boy whose history is as colorful as his tattooed celestial birthmarks.

Josef Blake was born to Allesa Blake around 1402 DR (Dale Reckoning). His father, most of his relatives claim, was a Solar, the highest and most powerful class of celestial who was once tasked to lead an army of half-angels known as Aasimars and good-aligned humans, mostly Paladins of every rank and ilk, against the two demon factions that overflowed unto the material plane during the peak of their blood war. It was rumored that his father was so powerful that he single-handedly defeated a third-tier Balor Demonlord that was leading one side of the enemy (read, Balor: fire-breather, tall as a four-storey inn, strong as ten dire bears on 'bull's strength' potion, can gore you with horns the size of a full-grown man, eats spellcasting imps for breakfast, and battles other demonlords on a weekly basis for tier-ranking).

Seriously. Don't even think about it.

With nothing but a +5 enchanted sword and seven epic-level clerics' worth of divine magic, Josef's father was rumored to defeat the Balor in an all-out one-on-one battle while the rest of the army watched in awe, soiling their trousers in the process. It was also rumored that right before he landed the killing blow, he cut off the Balor's ginormous black horns and said, "I'll make this my back-scratcher," then pissed on the demon's burning ashes to put out the flame. And before he can turn his attention to the other demonlord leading the opposing army, it disappeared, apparently collapsing back to the nine hells out of complete terror. It was the first documented case of a non-human stroke.

Immediately after slaying the demonlord and scaring the life out of the other one in completely un-angelic fashion, he uttered one intense holy word that instantly killed half of the demons in the battlefield and left the rest stunned and disconcerted. A hundred paladins that fought alongside the celestials owed their lives to him that day, for it was through his awesome feats that the army was finally able to cut through the swarming demons and banish the remainder back to the depths of the hellish planes.

In the middle of all that divine-infernal war, Josef's father met a strong-willed but insecure woman named Allesa whom he would soon love. As it turned out, celestials were not only skilled at conquering demons, they were also skilled at conquering hearts (yuck), so even if Allesa had never ever in her life loved a man, she was soon head-over-heels over the angel, who in her words was literally "heaven-sent," - words that she denies saying now that she's less love-drunk.

It does not take a wizard to know that relationships between a human and non-human like this one couldn't last. Sure, the few days they spent together was a whirlwind of romance and love-making, but eventually, the angel had to return. This is something Allesa knew and accepted beforehand so there were little qualms about raising young Josef alone, except for the occasional quips about Solars being the "biggest assholes of the heavens."

Celestials in order of assholery (front to back): an astral deva, a planetar, and a solar)

Having such a legendary father made Josef grow up rather famous and privileged. He went to the best paladin school in Murghom where he got access to the top masters of the class. Also, being born of an angel, he was invited to exclusive Aasimar banquets where they just talked about how cool it was to be half-celestial and basically debated social issues just to highlight how they were above all the other races, all the while sipping their century-old elven wine and munching on rare griffin-milk sour cheese. Yes, even if it was against his core principles, J. Blake accepted being part of the doucheiest bastard race in Faerun.

It seemed that everything came easy for Josef, but somehow he can never get out of his father's shadow. Everyone around him loved to talk about the "angel-with-no-name." They simply called his father the "Demonsbane of Murghom," and every iteration of his story became exponentially exagerrated. One such version mentioned how his father marched alone on the battlefield, and seeing the tens of thousands of hellspawn, just laughed and swung his sword in the air, castrating every tanar'ri and baatezu in the process. Eventually he got tired of hearing people talk about how we was never going to be like his father, and that he would never amount to anything more than a spoiled little Aasimar paladin.

At age 19, J. Blake took to the streets in a bid to get away from Murghom, he hitched with a trading caravan and eventually found his way west across the continent to a then little-known city called Neverwinter where he applied to become part of the town guard. Even though he seemingly botched the interview with the town's high council by showing up wearing a tattered tunic and patched-up trousers, he was hired for his strategic and tactical brilliance. Soon, he was making a name for himself, and was promoted to the rank of captain and becoming part of the elite castle guards by age 29.

He was not content to sit still inside the castle so he requested to become part of the Neverwinter army where, like his father, he would become a general. He has then successfully led the army to reclaim and defend most of the city's borderlands against goblinoids and orcs who were generally considered sub-human by the Neverwintan cilized folks more for their filthiness than their penchant for eating babies.

Gimme your clean babies!

By age 88, he has seen countless battles and has personally bashed the heads of opposing generals, both humanoid and non-humanoid, with nothing but his gauntlet. The Neverwintans have deemed him way too brutal and ruthless for a paladin, naming him "Darksbane" due to the pure terror that grips the hearts of his enemies. Some even argue that General J. "Darksbane" Blake was a warlord at heart, and that being a lawful good paladin was only a profession to him. Josef hears all these rumors but neither confirms nor denies them, perpetuating his mystique. Over the years, he has come to embrace the name and the reputation that came with it.

Yet, despite seeing too many changes in the seasons, Josef Darsbane is still by all appearances quite young, something that we can possibly attribute to his celestial bloodline. It may be something else too in his blood that keeps him from becoming content, for despite being a poster-child for easy success, he up and left his Neverwinter post rather abruptly, leaving his Eladrin assistant paladin and her cleric beau to manage the town's defense and policies, which in retrospect didn't seem like a good idea.

Whatever. Aribeth de Tylmarande is still hot.

With little word, he headed towards the rival city-state of Luskan to pursue an obscure and laughable call for heroes that looked more like a pyramid scam than a genuine cry for help.

This led people to speculate on what he was looking for. Maybe he was expecting to see a long-lost love he once met in his adventures. Perhaps he was looking to drink, gamble and fornicate behind the walls of the sin-city, away from the scrutiny of Neverwinter king Alagrond. Others go down deeper, saying that all his life he only wished to make his father proud and that perhaps Luskan's call holds the key since he wasn't getting the pat on the back with what he's done in Neverwinter. As the speculation mount and the people become increasingly redonkulous, one thing was certain: whatever it was that he was pursuing, it was now something between him and his paladin god.

As cliched as it may sound, only time and fate will tell how far Josef Darksbane's journeys will take him.